


To the Future

by taibhrigh



Category: Chronicles of Riddick (2004)
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-13
Updated: 2011-01-13
Packaged: 2017-10-14 17:44:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/151829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taibhrigh/pseuds/taibhrigh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vaako is almost to his breaking point. Will he break or make it out alive?</p>
            </blockquote>





	To the Future

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [Siluria](http://archiveofourown.org/users/siluria) for the beta.
> 
> This was written for smallfandomfest #8 on LJ.

Vaako had sided with Riddick during three consecutive council meetings. It had nothing to do with appeasing the breeder or pissing off his wife. The latter had really just been a bonus in the whole matter. It was the simple fact that Riddick had been right. That the actions their new Lord Marshal were ordering would net them the greatest gain for very little loss and push them forward in their mission. All before they'd even started toward the Threshold.

Granted, the actions would get the Lord Marshal something he wanted, but Riddick was entitled, as any Lord Marshal was, to take, leave, or destroy whatever he wanted from the conquered worlds the Necromongers visited. The hounds had been a small price to pay. And if he was honest with himself, watching them chase down Lord Carn and his two bodyguards had been quite enjoyable. A fact he was positive he hadn't hidden from the Lord Marshal.

His wife had bitched and yelled and tried to slap him after that first council meeting. After the second meeting, she moved out and hired three assassins to promote him to full dead. He was better than her hired assassins. When that failed she had tried to goad Lord Milan into both her bed and then into killing the Lord Marshal. Her plans failed again as Milan and his people never stood a chance against Riddick. And Lord Milan's dame, Wein, had stabbed her to death for taking away what had been hers.

It didn't stop there.

Four months into Lord Riddick's rule both Scales and Toal had wanted his position as First Among and had tried to kill him. They failed and died. And several days after the third council meeting, he was down another two commanders when Scalp Taker and Bern tried one right after the other to assassinate him. And though his knife had been in Bern for the killing blow, Vaako had been fairly certain that his throw had missed.

He hadn't thought he could take much more but three days later and stuck in a lift with four nobles all complaining about the breeder on the throne he was surprised when one of them actually had the guts to a pull a knife on him. The blade missed anything vital but it had been a little embarrassing to be caught off guard by a man who barely came to his shoulders. The man was dead now and so were the other three nobles in the lift, which included another his wife had been sleeping with on the side. The only person besides Vaako to make it out of the lift alive had been a servant who had dropped to the floor in a huddle to avoid the fight.

He realized two things at that point. The first, that while the armor would have protected him from the initial injury, his movement in the lift would have been restricted had he had it on and that could have just as easily cost him his life. And two, that he had been around the Lord Marshal a little too much as he'd let the servant--the non-combatant--live.

As the lift doors closed and moved on with the bodies inside, Vaako leaned against the hallway wall and took a moment to himself. He sighed and tried not to limp through the passageways to his meeting with the Lord Marshal. It would do him no good to show weakness to anyone he passed, but he hadn't been through a purification in nearly three months and while the pain might mean he was alive it sure the hell hurt.

"I smell blood," was the first thing Riddick said to him after the doors to the Lord Marshal's chambers slid closed behind him. "Yours."

Damn Furyan senses.

"It is nothing, my Lord. A mere flesh wound."

Riddick prowled around him, as did one of the hellhounds. "I believe I'll be the judge of that. Sit."

"As you wish, my Lord."

Riddick growled and Vaako kept the smirk to himself. He knew Riddick didn't buy all the supplication that came with the office and title. Vaako made sure he stayed just this side of respectful but lately he was sure he'd become more sarcastic and that Riddick found it amusing.

"Having a bad day?" Riddick asked with a grin.

"Shoo," Vaako said, using the word he heard Riddick say to the hellhounds as he pushed the one that always seemed to come to him away from his leg. Then he glared up at Riddick as the Lord Marshal chuckled. He tried to ignore the chuckle. He was sure it meant something but he was tired. "And, no. My day is going fine," he answered. "Thank you."

Riddick snorted and squatted down to inspect the wound. Vaako knew Riddick didn't believe him. And the low, pained noise he he made as the Lord Marshal poked at his wound didn't help matters.

"Is that really necessary?" he asked, trying to pull his leg away from the prodding fingers.

"You smell more alive than dead. Your lack of time in your torture chamber is doing you good."

"Fantastic. Since you seem to be in a jovial mood I wish to ask for a small favor. Two actually." And Vaako winced at both Riddick using the wound-stitcher and his own weakness for asking a favor.

Riddick tossed the stitcher on the table and dropped into the seat opposite him and waited.

"I wish to use your divan to sleep."

Riddick raised an eyebrow and glanced over at the couch thing that was under the long porthole window before asking, "Why?"

Vaako knew it wasn't the most comfortable of things in the world but it would be the best for what he needed. "Because you won't try to kill me while I sleep. Because you once told me that if you wanted me dead, you'd have already done it."

Riddick snorted and waved his hand toward the long, deep cushioned bench under the window. "Have a nice nap, Vaako."

Vaako nodded his thanks and moved toward the divan. He loosened his belt and shoes but didn't remove anything before lying down with his back pressed into cushion behind him. The hound from earlier moved in a circle near his center mass before plopping down on the ground, head facing towards the center of the room.

He ignored the feelings that action provoked. He ignored everything but closing his eyes.

"What was the second favor?" Riddick asked a second before he drifted off to sleep.

Without even opening his eyes he answered, his voice sounding exhausted even to his own ears. "My pulse gun, I would like it out of locked storage."

Riddick gave a soft chuckle before quietly answering, "I'll think about it."

It was the last thing he heard before sleep took him.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Vaako had no idea what time it was when he woke, but he felt more rested than...he had to pause to think, probably since before joining the Necromongers. It was the first time he'd truly felt safe enough to actually let his body completely relax.

The hound was softly snoring where he had last seen it but woke as soon as he shifted to sit up. The hound turned its body around so that it could rest its head on Vaako's knee. Without even realizing it until he heard the hound start to purr, he had begun scratching the beast's head and neck.

Vaako stretched. He didn't see Riddick, but he could clearly see the other hound's shined-eyes looking up at him from just within the door to the Lord Marshal's sleeping chambers.

He prepared to leave but his hound wouldn't let him near the door. Instead it steered him back towards the table that now had plates of food and two pitchers of drink on top of it. Vaako stared. On the table in front of the chair where he had sat earlier was his pulse gun. Next to it was the holster that he normally kept it in that had sat empty in his quarters since Riddick had removed all pulse weapons and placed them into locked storage.

Vaako ran his fingers across the gun before moving it to the side and pouring himself a cup of the strong tea, which he knew Riddick did not favor but yet there was a pitcher of it sitting on the table.

He paused. There were those feelings again--safety, kinship, and something else he couldn't exactly put his finger on.

The hound gave a soft whine. He glanced down and thought he saw a slightly sad expression, if that was even possible, on the hound's face. "Do not tell your owner," he said quietly, offering a bite of meat from one of the plates to the hound.

"That hound isn't mine."

Only Vaako's training kept him from jumping when Riddick spoke. If Riddick was this quiet before going to the Threshold Vaako wasn't sure he wanted to know what skills the other man would gain afterwards.

"Explain."

"He's yours," Riddick answered as he sat down at the table and began putting food on his own plate.

Vaako stared. "Pardon."

Riddick chuckled. "Not firing on all cylinders, are ya?"

"Riddick," Vaako growled and it was too late to take what, and how, he said back.

Riddick chuckled again. "See, you can say my name."

Vaako glared. "Please explain about the hound, my Lord."

"Uh, uh. No going back," Riddick grinned. "Or your little gun returns to storage."

Vaako opened his mouth to argue and stopped. _Oh what the hell, he thought._ "Explain about the hound, Riddick."

"Easy, right." Riddick didn't wait for him to answer, just pointed his fork between him and the hound. "He likes you. Hellhounds are loyal and no matter what the ghost horde thinks, they are not pets. They understand more than you think."

Vaako looked down at the hound and back up at Riddick. His life was turning upside down. "It's going to follow me around?"

Riddick shrugged. "He. And you might consider giving him a name. It makes him easier to call that way."

Vaako gazed quizzically at Riddick. He'd never heard Riddick call the hounds anything; maybe he just wasn't close enough. "What is your hound's name?" he asked.

"Fry." There was no explanation and Vaako thought perhaps he hadn't earned that yet. "And they have excellent hearing," Riddick added, almost an after thought.

Well that answered why he had never heard their names. "And what have you been calling this hound?" he asked, scratching behind the hound's ear.

"Hunter."

"Hunter." Vaako looked down at the hound that now had its head propped on his thigh. "Good name."

"Your call."

Vaako didn't get to reply as the chime on the Lord Marshal's door sounded.

Riddick made a sound that was not quite a grunt or growl but was definitely of displeasure. "That will be the breezy old broad."

"I shall leave you to it," Vaako began, standing from the table only to be stopped by Riddick's fingers wrapping around his wrist.

"Nah," Riddick said. "I think you should stay."

Vaako sat down. "What do you want from me, Riddick?"

"The future."

Vaako glanced around the chambers and nodded. Something in him seemed to just let go and relax. He could do this. He wanted to do this.

"To the future," he said and grinned when he saw Riddick's answering grin.


End file.
